5/1/99 Matthew 5: 39-42
Love is an action. It is what we do. It is also a response that we can make to those who hurt us. Their actions must not shape or mold us. God is shaping us into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. My sin broke His heart. He went to the Cross-to pay the price for my sin. He paid the price for your sin too.
5/2/99 Matthew 6:3-4
We are living our lives before a watching Lord. He is with us. He sees everything we do. He knows the motive of our hearts. My good deeds are recognized by the Lord. He will never forget them. When I function for any reason other than to please God, I am off course. When I find myself off course, I repent and change the way I am doing things. This refreshes my heart and gives me a rich sense of the presence of God. God is pleased when I repent and turn to Him.
5/3/99 Mathew 6:19-20
Tithe for the Lord says so. Tithing enables us to trust God. It is an action that we take that declares God’s control of us. This is the beginning point. When I struggle with the real issues in my life and work together with the Lord on them I grow. As I grow I learn to give of my resources. Giving begins after tithing for tithing is required. Generally, the graciousness of my giving is an indication of the depth of my relationship with the Lord.
5/4/99 Luke 6:38
I want to open up the windows of heaven that God might give me all that He wants me to have. I find that giving is a solution to my loneliness. My sense of self worth that generally runs low is bolstered by more giving. I experience healed hurts as I give more. The more I give the more I am healed. The more I give the less I focus on getting. The more I give the richer I become. Giving is Godly. The more I give the closer I feel to God.
5/5/99 Matthew 6:32-33
Yesterday is gone. It hurts me but it is still gone. The future never comes. Each night when I go to sleep yearning for tomorrow to come, I get up and it is still today. I cannot survive for eternity until I trust God for today. Today is the time of salvation. Today is the time of healing. Today is the moment of service. Everything I will do this side of eternity will be done in the present. Today I will follow the Lord.
5/6/99 2 Corinthians 9:7-8
God gives us all that we have. My giving evidences my trust in the Lord and my willingness to be directed by Him. The Lord is on my side. He wants me to be blessed. He seeks for my best good. Help me Father to give with the right attitude. Bless the name of the Lord.
5/7/99 2 Corinthians 9:10
I will become like the things I do. If I act like the person I would like to be then that is the person I will become like. I want to be an encourager, so every chance I get I encourage someone. Everybody needs a kind word. God has a kind word for you, I love you so much that while you were not mine I suffered and died for you. I love you so much that while you were living for yourself I continued to do things for your best good. I want to be like Jesus. He loves me and He loves you.
5/8/99 Psalm 9:1
Thank you Lord for the breath of life. Thank you taking care of me while I slept. Thank you Lord for saving me. Thank you for always being there at the exact right moment for me. Thank you Lord for you are indeed wonderful. Bless the name of the Lord.
5/9/9 Psalm 18:1-3
I find my strength in the Lord. Whatever I need God is able to provide it. The Lord cannot be moved. He is my rock. No enemy can overrun me. The Lord is my fortress. The Lord is equipped to stand between any harm and me. He is my shield. He is mighty. He is my savior. In every instance the Lord provides what I need to face the day.
5/10/99 Psalm 40 : 1-3
Wait upon the Lord is not an option in the cafeteria line of life. I can wait upon God or fail. His Word says that in my own strength I can do nothing. In Christ I can do all things. Waiting upon the Lord is a sure sign of spiritual maturity and required to succeed. I must admit, sometimes it looks so easy to do things on my own but then I remind myself, wait upon the Lord.
5/11/99 Deuteronomy 7: 7-8
God is sovereign. I am who God created me to be. When I get happy with bending the knee to God I will be on the right road for glorifying Him in my life. I am worthy and loved. God created me different than any other person. His plan for my life is unique and useful in building His kingdom. Serve the Lord with gladness.
5/12/99 Psalm 139: 23-24
My focus is on me. I struggle to change it and yet continually fail. God’s focus is on me. He wants me to change my focus to him. I can trust God to do what is in my best interest. I can have confidence that the Lord is in control. The Father is concerned about every thing that happens to me. He loves me and wants me to learn to love him. You and I need help to grow in our love for God. Jesus is the one that will give us that help. Thank you Lord for staying with me through all my sin. Help me Jesus to change.
5/13/99 Proverbs 20:27
Contemplation and meditation are required for a growing and vibrant Christian faith. I cannot count the times that the Lord has touched that sin-strain in me when I knelt before Him piously praying. I am asking for things but the Lord’s response is about my character. It’s character that counts. I have heard Him say this many times and I seem to still be struggling with learning this lesson. Character is what we think. It comes out when we think no one is looking. God wants to remake our character so that we act like His darling son Jesus.
5/14/99 Hebrew 4:13-14
I need Jesus. Everything I have ever done and will do comes under the scrutiny of the Lord God. You need Jesus. Everything you have ever done and will do comes under the scrutiny of the Lord God. We are all sinners. We were dead in our trespasses and sin but have been made alive in Jesus Christ. Praise God for our salvation. Thank you Jesus for giving us a pure and clean relationship with the Father. Thank you Lord. Thank you.
5/15/99 Job 28:17-18
We labor ever day to make ends meet. We struggle hard to make sense of the things that buffet us in life. We use time payment plans to get what we want right now. To many people the horizon of life seems to be endless until one day the end comes. They never see beyond the day to day grind of life. Everyone needs the Lord. When we see our sin and bend the knee to Jesus we have acquired wisdom. Every time we put God first we grow in wisdom. Wisdom is found in following the Lord.
5/16/99 Job28: 20, 23,&28
Today, knowledge is plentiful but wisdom is scarce. Only a fool thinks he knows it all. Only a person without understanding denies the claims of Jesus. When we come to Christ and ask forgiveness for our sin we begin a relationship with the Lord. He knows all things. As we develop reverence and awe for our wonderful Lord He gives us wisdom to live our life. In Christ we have everything we need to be successful. As we learn to obey the Lord we grow in wisdom. Trust in God. The Lord will make you wise.
5/17/99 Psalm 90:12
Time wasters are destroying us. We must discipline our hearts and lives to grow in grace and in the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should pay extra attention to what we are doing with our time at night. An early devotional time is better than as the last thing of the day. If you have set your heart to change your life, extended periods of time in the Word of God are essential. Our relationship with the Lord grows by quantity time and quality time. It takes time to become like Jesus. For some of us it takes a lot more time.
5/18/99 Psalm 111:10
God loves obedience more than sacrifice. Every time I say no to temptation, the darkness is pushed back a little farther. Every time I pray, I am destroying darkness. We are in a real war. What we do and say counts. When I truly know who God is I can come to grips with who I am. Serve God. Love each other.
5/19/99 Proverbs 1:7
Knowledge is all around us but wisdom is scarce. We are called to honor and respect God. Because we know Him and His greatness we will live in awe of His power. We will be obedient to His Word. Our lives will be a reflection of His control of us and love for us. Trust in God. He will make you truly wise.
5/20/99 Proverbs 2:2-5
Wisdom begins with God. Knowledge is changeable but wisdom is eternal. We are called to seek wisdom. This encourages us to read God’s Word. This call simply states that without a growing relationship with God we will not be wise. When we are sincere and persistent in our search for wisdom, the Lord will bless our efforts.
5/21/99 Proverbs 2:6-8
God doesn’t call the equipped. God equips the called. We come to the Lord to learn. We seek His wisdom so that we can build Godly lives and accomplish His will for our lives. He knows what we need to know. When we ask Him, He will give us good advice.
5/22/99 Proverbs 3:7-8
Life is fast. We are tempted every day to give into to the fast paced life that the world leads. We will lose if we ignore the Lord. I am called to constantly examine my values and priorities. God intends for me to follow Him. Evil intends for me to follow self. I am the one that makes the choice of which one I will follow. Choose God.
5/23/99 Proverbs 3:21-26
God’s Word says we live next to death with the full confidence that the Lord is in control. I am called to live my life wisely. This includes good planning and careful attention to the details of daily life. When I mess up, God will help me to straighten out the mess. I can live each day confident that the Lord will deal with me with my best interests at heart. God is good, all the time.
5/24/99 Luke 7:32-35
Those who can do but those who can’t criticize. We must be careful about the way we live. We are not responsible for judging or condemning Christians who serve the Lord. I am called to pay attention to the way that I live.
5/25/99 1 Corinthians 1: 20-21
The Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ still sounds foolish to many. The world worships power, influence and wealth. Jesus says whosoever will may come. To the world this is foolish. To us it is a message of love and value. I count not because of who I am but because of whose I am. Jesus is Lord and I belong to Him.
5/26/99 1 Corinthians 1: 23-25
Death seems to be the end of the road to the unsaved. When we are saved we no longer suffer from the fear of the unknown. Our destination is sure. The power of God raised Jesus from the dead. His precious Word tells us that this same power that raised Jesus will save us from eternal death to eternal life. We will be with the Lord forever.
5/27/99 Ephesians 1: 9-10
The world is a cold, hard place. One day Christ will return. When he does, he will unite all people into one group. God’s children will bow to Christ as Lord and go to be with Him in eternity. God’s enemies, the unsaved, will bow to Christ as Lord and be cast into eternal perdition. Jesus is coming back soon.
5/28/99 Ephesians 1:11
God is sovereign. He is in control. If your life is chaotic, cling to the fact that Jesus is Lord of all. Satan cannot destroy you. You are a child of God and loved by the Father. Christ is all and in all and you have not been forgotten.
5/29/99 Colossians 1:28-29
We belong to the Lord. We are His ambassadors. When we grow in Christ we simply tell others what God is doing in us. Our responsibility is to truthfully share what the Lord has done in our life. The problem for too many Christians is that they aren’t growing and have nothing to share. When the Lord speaks to you, you will tell everybody what God has done.
5/30/99 James 1:5-6
When we have faith, we simply believe that we are valuable to the Lord. We struggle with our fears and seek to understand God. We cannot understand God; we can only serve Him and trust that He will tell us the right things to do. He loves each one of us. As His child we can be confident that God will do the right thing. Faith is living in such a way that I evidence this confidence in what I say and do.
5/31/99 James 3:17
The first commandment is to love the Lord with all my heart and soul. The second commandment is to love thy neighbor as thyself. It doesn’t say that our neighbor is lovable. God loves me with a complete understanding of all my sin. He loves me because He chooses to love me. Love is an action. I must choose to love to fulfill the commandments of the Lord.
